Stuck at Home

Well, so much for our puppy being so "good".... She really is good but seems to be possessed by some separation anxiety. She is good as can be when we are home and she can see us but when we try to leave or go to bed, she whines and cries and poops wherever she stands!! Ughhhh! The kids and I tried to leave her in her crate this morning for just a quick trip to the library, when we came home not 10 minutes later (the library was closed), she had made a huge mess of herself and her crate! Hopefully we can all figure this out quickly! The rest of our day was quite a bit better. Tabitha had her friend, Sabine, come over and play. They played board games, baked chocolate chip cookies and played Twister. The spoke a combination of French and English to each other and really had fun. The boys either played with Coco or played Lego's all afternoon. Very nice.... I'm including a picture that I took in front of the library this morning, I thought all of you Americans who are continuing to get snowed upon might appreciate a bit of color.

It's a Smoke Detector!!!

This morning I gathered up the kids and the puppy and we drove out to our old house by the sea. I was there to meet the realtor and our relocation assistant to do the final walk through of the house before it officially goes out of our name. We had to give 3 months notice on that house and continue to pay through March 4 which is why we still have it hanging over our heads. Apparently, 3 months is standard operating procedure in France. Anyway, we went out to the house, reminding ourselves again how truly inconvenient that drive truly was. As we walked through with the realtor and she pointed out the few nail holes that we needed to fill, etc, she and the relocation assistant looked up and noticed the smoke detector that Josh had installed. They were speaking in French but I could tell they were surprised and she had no idea what it was. The assistant thought he knew but was uncertain and had to ask me if that's what it actually was. I told him "yes" and then they both asked me how it worked and what you need it for! It was hilarious! I realize that the homes here are built of stone and cement and are much less likely to burn than the ones in the U.S. but I also know that I have seen some burned out shells of houses around so it must happen at times. Boy, what would they say if they saw the carbon monoxide detector?? The kids spent the rest of the afternoon romping around our wet yard with the wet dog and having a great time. It's been raining off and on since we came back from Italy. It's warm and the flowers are starting to bloom though so I guess I can't complain too much. Here's a video of the kids playing with Coco and some pictures of my beautiful raspberry nougat cake from last night. Josh and I did get the chance to go out to dinner last night. We settled the dog in with the kids on the couch to watch a movie and when we came back 90 minutes later, they were all just as we had left them. We walked about 7 minutes, around the corner to this restaurant that we have passed often but never entered. We discovered it to be a great little place with a much larger variety of foods than the normal French restaurant and the menu a bit more American - meaning not served in courses but just a entree with a side. Very good. We were thrilled to be back among the "civilized" French after our week in Italian restaurants!! We were greeted very formally not only by the hostess and waitress but also by the other diners whose tables were around ours. We were not interrupted during our meal to ask "how things were" and when we left, the waiter came over and held the door open for us. Ahhhhh.... it's good to be home!

Birthday Girl!

And our new puppy greeted me with a nice big "present" on our bedroom floor first thing this morning. Happy Birthday, Heidi! Not too much going on today as the kids and I had no real plans, it has rained all day and Josh had to work. So, we spent some more quality time with the puppy, the kids had their French tutoring and have played remarkably well all day with each other. They have also spent a lot of time sneaking around and whispering as they make "surprise" cards and crafts for me. Quincy, Tabitha and Max took Coco for a walk to our favorite boulangerie and bought me a birthday cake after getting instructions and money to do so from Josh. I spend a lot of my day making sure Max doesn't "love Coco to death". He loves to carry her around and make her fly like an airplane! After some cake and gifts this evening, Josh and I are hoping to be able to sneak out long enough to have a "quick" dinner.
I forgot to tell you, while we were in Rome after a long day of hiking all around town and sightseeing, we were hopelessly lost... We had two maps but nothing was well marked and we were truly having a hard time finding our hotel. While we were standing on a street corner and "discussing" this... a man about our age approached us and told us that he heard the mid-west in our voices, was from Ohio himself and would love to help us out if we needed it. So, he pointed us in the right direction and we found our hotel shortly. Can't beat those friendly mid-westerners!

Welcome Coco!

Today was all about the dog.... We are all really enjoying our new puppy! She is "calm inside and lets us hold her, and wild outside when we want her to play"... to quote Calvin. Coco has been very good so far, she has slept through the night in her crate without any whining and has only had 2 accidents in the house. Hope this lasts! I'm going to try to include a video of Max with Coco.
Couple of random thoughts about Italy now that we are comfortably back in France. France is dirty compared to the US but Italy is really dirty - graffiti, cigarettes, urine, dog poop, etc on the streets everywhere. Italy was quite expensive for everything compared to the US but cheaper than France! They also seemed to not accept credit/debit cards as widely in Italy as in France. We often seemed to need cash and were always seeking out an ATM. We were very impressed that every person that we dealt with could speak English - no matter what their job was and many of them also spoke French! One night in a restaurant, our waiter was speaking English to us and then French to the people at the table behind us before speaking Italian to his co-workers. Josh then threw him for a loop by speaking in French when we were ready to order our desserts! Quite entertaining for us! The cigarette smoking in Italy is horrible!! Everyone, I mean everyone, smokes everywhere! We had gotten used to some level of smoking in France but it in Italy, it was nuts. Almost made us sick at times to be in a closed room with smokers everywhere. We also felt the Italians were very "unrefined" when it came to meals. We have gotten so used to a very polite society where meals are taken seriously, eaten slowly and served in a very picturesque way. In Italy, everything was served at random times, depending on when it was ready and there seemed to be no effort made in the appearance of the food. Having said that, we did have some wonderful food and Quincy thought he had died and gone to Heaven to have pizza and pasta as choices at every meal. We ate lots of seafood with our pasta in addition to experimenting with some black truffle sauce and some heavenly cuttlefish with ink sauce!! France is definitely more polite with formal greetings every time you enter a place. The French people also look different with being more clean cut, trim and small. Very interesting.....

Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice....

... all in 7 days! What a life we lead!! We started our trip with a Sunday morning drive to Paris. We spent the day at the Louvre, seeing all of those famous things that we had always heard about but never saw.... The Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, etc. Max was still running a fever but feeling pretty good as long as he took some breaks and had some Tylenol in him. We had a very nice day and were absolutely amazed at the size of the Louvre as well as the beauty of the building itself! It used to be a palace and is really quite gorgeous. We were also amazed at the size of the Mona Lisa! It's really quite small!!! After dinner and a night in a tiny even by French standards, hotel room, we caught our morning plane to Rome. The flight was uneventful and beautiful as we flew below the cloud cover the whole way and had a fantastic view of the Alps for a solid 20 minutes. When we arrived in Rome, we took a train to the city center and then fumbled our way around the city for quite awhile before finally finding our hotel. It turned out to be quite close to the train station! For some reason, the clerk/manager at the hotel desk did not think that we would be comfortable in 2 standard hotel rooms so she offered us a pent house apartment in a separate building for the same price! She was either very nice or really trying to get rid of us! Any way, we took it and although the decor was a bit dated, the apartment was on the 7th floor of a large building and we had more square footage and roof top garden space than we have in our house! It was wonderful, 3 bedrooms, two baths.... Fantastic! We spent the remainder of the day exploring the Colosseum and the ruins of the Roman Forum. Absolutely amazing!! The size and age of those things are incredible and quite difficult to comprehend. After a delicious and atrociously expensive authentic Italian meal... we hit the sack and rested up for the next day of exploring. On Tuesday morning, we got up bright and early and hit the buffet breakfast at the hotel. Lots of pastries, bread and yogurt. We then headed out under beautiful blue skies to Vatican City. It was about an hour walk from our hotel but fun to see the sights of Rome - more motor scooters than I have ever seen in my life! The Vatican was not very crowded and amazing! I had no idea that St. Peter's Basilica was so ornate and beautiful! We also toured the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel. After lunch (more pasta and pizza!), we walked over the the Castle of St. Angelo. This is an old, old castle with beautiful views of the city of Rome and Vatican City from the top. On our way back to our hotel, we went through the Pantheon and saw Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps! The kids were all just amazed at the history and the architecture. On Wednesday morning, we took it easy, slept in a bit and lingered over breakfast before heading out on foot to see Circus Maximis, some more ruins and this "Mouth of Truth" sculpture. The sculpture was said to bite your hand off if you put your hand in it's mouth and had ever told a lie. Well, somehow, everyone of us left with our hands intact. After lunch, we hopped a train to Florence and in less than two hours, were on to our next adventure! In Florence, we got our hands on a better map and found our hotel quite easily. Here the hotel clerk was less than thrilled to see our large family and made us pay a hefty increase in our room rate to accommodate everyone. We did then get some nice big rooms but were not too happy about the price! After dumping our suitcases, we immediately headed out to explore the city. Florence is quite wealthy and is known for it's jewelry and leather. We had a wonderful time at the street markets and on the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge spanning the Arno River and covered only in jewelry stores! On Thursday morning, we got up early and climbed the 414 steps of the Giotto Bell tower at the Duomo. Beautiful, beautiful views of the city and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. We then toured the Cathedral and admired the bronze doors of the baptistery. It was then time to see some leather. We toured a leather workshop and learned all about "good" leather. Josh even surprised me by buying me a beautiful leather jacket for my birthday! One should always take a trip to Florence in the week before one's birthday! We then ate lunch and admired all the sculpture and art around the city including Michelangelo's David. We discovered a little Da Vinci museum where we were able to see much working copies of many of his "inventions". Very interesting and fun for the kids to play with! Next we took a long stroll across the river to see Pitti Palace and more shops and works of art. We had a great time at a little playground behind the Palace where Max and Calvin let loose and did some kid stuff for awhile. On Friday morning, we took a long walk down the river to see one of the original gates of the city before climbing the hill to see Piazza Michelangelo and some more beautiful views of the city and the Tuscan countryside! It was then time for lunch and to catch our new train to Venice. We arrived in Venice 2 1/2 hours later to discover that it was cold and foggy!! Wow! What a dramatic temperature change! It didn't cool our enthusiasm for Venice though and we "jumped" right in to the city of water by catching a water taxi to take us to our hotel. It was great fun and really got us a good view of the many canals! We then got busy exploring the city! The canals and little narrow streets and alleys are amazing! Hard to imagine what went into building such a place! Venice also has a bridge covered in shops, the Rialto Bridge, where we had a great time window shopping and choosing our souvenirs. After embarrassing ourselves only once by trying to enter a restaurant for dinner before 7 p.m., we had a very relaxing evening. After a huge "American" (it included fruit, eggs and bacon) breakfast buffet at this hotel, we met our tour guide at the Royal Gardens outside of St. Mark's Square for a walking tour of the city. Very informative and interesting! We saw Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, St. Mark's Square, the Clock Tower, the Rialto Bridge and many, many campos and canals. We loved it and really learned about the history of the city! The city was certainly not always honest, they even stole St. Mark's bones to put in their church! After a leisurely lunch and lots of walking, we took our requisite gondola ride! It was great fun! Beautiful to see the city from the canals and fun to feel such a part of tradition! After a bit more shopping and walking, we were all cold and tired so the kids suggested that we leave them at the hotel with some pizza and hit a restaurant by ourselves! Great idea! So, in the romantic city of Venice, we were able to have a nice evening out by ourselves with some amazing food! On Sunday morning, it was horribly foggy and even a bit colder so we did just a little walking around before taking a water taxi out to the airport. The fog caused all sorts of delays so our trip back to Paris took much longer than it should have. When we arrived in Paris, we then had to find our car (ooops, forgot to write down the level number of the parking garage) and get out of the heavily congested city traffic. We then drove an hour before meeting our puppy breeder and picking up our new addition to our family. Whew!! We have had a nice day of relaxation and puppy bonding today.... The kids don't have school all week so it's only Josh who had to face the real world today.

Fantastic Italy!

Wow, we had a wonderful, wonderful time in Italy last week!!! We got back home late, late last night after a long fog delay in Venice and due to a phone call while in Rome, we had to make a stop outside of Paris to pick up our new puppy.... So, we are now home with a mountain of unpacking and laundry to do and a new puppy to take care of. Everyone is very happy although tired.... I promise to type more later and include many pictures......

Puppy Supplies

Max is finally feeling pretty perky although still running a low fever so we think we might be in the clear in time to fly to Rome on Monday morning. We plan to leave for Paris tomorrow morning to spend the day at the Louvre first. Should be fun! We will probably be offline for the week so I'll have to catch you all up on our travels the following week.
No one had school or ball games today so we had a relaxing morning of puttering around the house. We then got busy with packing and doing laundry for our trip. We also took time to get haircuts and to buy all of our puppy supplies. "Coco" will come to live with us when we get back from our trip so we need to be prepared! Wish us luck.
We have now fed the kids some "steak hache" - hamburgers sans bun - and are heading out the door to another French dinner party. Monday will mark 6 months in France for us. Can you believe it?!!!

Our Sick Little Boy

A long day of mostly sitting with a little feverish boy on my lap - reading books and watching movies.... I was able to do some of my French lessons and to get our trip to Italy planned and very well organized. Now we just have to get Max well enough that we can go and enjoy ourselves!
Couple of funny little things.... Calvin had a swimming test in gym class yesterday and in a country where the public bathrooms are basically open air affairs and where women are topless on all beaches.... the 3rd graders all had to wear t-shirts while swimming to cover their chests!
On the way home from picking Calvin up from school today, we had to wait behind a tour bus that was dropping off tourists downtown. Calvin wanted to know why a tour bus was in town, "what is so interesting to see in Vannes?"! How quickly we become complacent with our surroundings!
Here are a few pictures of the interesting things Vannes does have to offer....

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Just a few quick words before Josh and I put the kids to bed and head out the door for a dinner date....
Max woke up with a headache and fever this morning so my day consisted only of staying home with him. We had a nice time together reading some books and watching a few movies. While he slept this afternoon, I baked some homemade baguettes and made some cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow. We did get a wonderful surprise when we received a package in the mail from Grandma Greene - full of birthday gifts (for me) and Valentine's gifts for everyone! Max had a great time sorting everything out for everyone. Thanks Grandma!! Just a few pictures from today.... my roses from Josh, a chocolate box full of cookies to Josh from me, Max opening Grandma's gifts, Max taking a long, long nap, and a little bit of spring time just outside of our front door....

A Hard Fall

While running out for the mail this morning, my foot slipped and a fell hard down the last 4-5 steps of our incredibly solid cement staircase to the front door. I landed on my right arm and rear-end twisting my foot and knee in the process. Ouch! I was behind our front gate/wall so no one could see me, thank goodness. I am fine but will definitely be sore in the morning! This incident certainly made me think... Quincy and Tabitha were at school, Josh was at work and my little guys were in the house - they didn't even know that I had gone out. I don't know what I would have done if I would have been seriously hurt! I'm sure I could have attracted the attention of a neighbor but I don't know how I would have been able to explain what I needed or how to get in touch with Josh or who could watch the boys. Scary! I guess I better slow down when I get the mail! Most of our day today was spent at home. We had an electrician come out to fix the numerous little quirky things that needed fixed around the house and he ended up being here for most of the day. So, I had to just hang out. The boys played with each other and with Quincy when he came home from school. Tabitha spent the day at a friend's house. I did a lot of research on the internet for our upcoming trip to Italy. We leave on Sunday and plan to see Rome, Florence and Venice before returning home the following Sunday. After the electrician left, we headed over to pick up Taba and ended up being invited to stay for cake and coffee. The kids had a great time playing with the kids in that family while I visited with the mother. Very nice....

Even Eating an Apple....

... is different! Some days, everything around us seems so different from our norm. Yesterday, while biking with my buddies, we always stop about half way through and eat an apple.... while hanging out, eating my apple and listening to the conversation around me.... I noticed that they even eat apples differently here! Everyone in our group ate it side by side rather than eating all the way around. They would eat one side down to the core before turning it and eating the next side. Just different! Today, I got my car washed at an automatic car wash. Everything was the same except for the fact that the sign instructed me that you were forbidden to stay in your car and the layout of the wash was such that you had to get out of your car to pay and begin the wash. Again, just different. So much in America is geared toward convenience whereas here, most things are geared toward someone being on foot rather than in a vehicle. I have not seen one drive up cash machine, one drive up mail box or one drive up bank. Some things I will never get used to.... seeing grown men just step a few feet off the side of the road or sidewalk to urinate, having pedestrians step right out in front of your car assuming that you will stop because they have the right away, and seeing my almost 13 year old son get a kiss on the cheek from his coach when he arrives for basketball practice!
Beautiful day of errands, grocery shopping and French lessons for all!

Fresh Air and Exercise

Today was yet another gorgeous 60 degree day.... So, this morning, Tabitha decided that she would walk to school rather than riding with Josh and then walking home. She said that she really enjoyed that and arrived in no time. Once all of the kids were where they needed to be, I joined my biking buddies for our Monday morning ride. Today was so beautiful that we rode for a solid 3 1/2 hours, all along the coast. After drinking some water together afterwards and chatting just a bit, we all went our separate ways. Usually these women really try to speak only French to me but today, 3 of the 7 were planning trips to the U.S. so they only want to speak English so they could practice! As soon as I got home and changed clothes, my friend, Sabine called and invited me to go for a walk. So, she and I got together and walked a solid 2 1/2 hours, all along a different part of the coast! Beautiful! But, I have to admit that I am bit worn out this evening! We are all still very excited about the prospect of our new puppy and are busy learning all we can about the breed and how to train it. We did have one bit of big disappointment today however.... We found out that our little local boulangerie where Q and T buy our baguette every afternoon, will be closed for 2 weeks while the owners vacation in Martinique!!! We are going to starve! The pictures today are actually pictures from yesterday when we went to the pet show and then took a walk along the port.

A New Family Member

Never a dull moment around our house, as usual.... Since uprooting our family of 6 and moving to France wasn't quite enough, we decided today to add a puppy to the mix! Actually, we have been promising the kids a dog for a very, very long time and finally decided that this was the time to do it. I'm not working and we have a great house and yard for a dog. France is also extremely dog friendly so we know that we will be able to take her with us any where that we want to. So, today, after a great picnic in a beautiful park near the port, we headed to a pet show at the exhibition hall. We really intended only to gather information and perhaps to find out about some local breeders. But.... we found a bichon frise puppy that we all fell in love with. I had read extensively about this breed and felt it would be a good fit for us so..... we bought her! We chose to not bring her home with us however as we are leaving for a week in Italy next weekend. So, we will get her the last week in February. Wish us luck!!

Sunshine and Fun Stuff

Another gorgeous, warm day.... The little guys had school this morning so while they were at school, Josh and Tabitha, and then Quincy and I headed to the huge open air market that is open in town every Wednesday and Saturday mornings. We hadn't been in a while so we again had to marvel at the huge selection of things available - everything from watches, shoes and clothing to paella to cheeses, olives and fresh produce. Beautiful! Because the weather was so nice, the marketplace was packed with people. We stocked up on fruits, some confiture and breads. We even bought some fried rice that they were making in huge quantities and enjoyed that for lunch. We would have bought more of everything but we knew that we needed to be able to walk the 10-15 minutes home, carrying whatever we purchased. The 6 kilo bag of apples that we did buy was about enough to wear me out! After picking up the boys and eating lunch, Quincy and Josh headed out to Baden for a basketball game while I took Tabitha to a friend's house to play and Calvin to a birthday party. Once again, all of the mothers proved to be extremely friendly and more than helpful. This group doesn't speak English but they were careful to speak slowly and limited French to me so I could follow the conversation. They were thrilled when I understood what was being said. After dumping everyone else, Max and I headed back downtown to enjoy the beautiful park that is just outside of the city wall. Max let off some steam with a big run, a roll down a hill and some sliding and swinging before settling down with me on the ground for a game of marbles. All of the kids at their school are totally into playing marbles so everyday there are games to be played and marbles to be traded, or won or lost. We also spent some time looking at the monuments in the park for the French Revolution and the two World Wars. We even found a "Weber" listed on one of the monuments for World War II. After collecting everyone from their various places, we spent the rest of the day at home, playing outside and hanging out.

Bibliothèque

A truly gorgeous day today!! Sunny all day and about 60 degrees by this afternoon. I love it! If this is February, I'll take it! We had a very nice day today - everyone started out well with some homemade French toast made from big, thick slices of brioche from our local bakery. After taking the boys to school, I then hit the trails around the port with a group of women who run every Friday. I know two of them and they invited me to join their group. It was such a beautiful 60 minute run filled with sunshine, good French conversation and beautiful scenery (I'm including a few pictures)! Rejuvenating! This morning was a bit cold with a temperature of only 2 degrees Celsius when I drove the kids to school - cold enough that I had to scrape my windows before driving. It struck me while driving and running, that I saw people everywhere opening the windows of their houses to bring in some fresh air! How often do you see that in the US when the temperature is only 35? While running, I began speaking with one woman in the group whom I did not know. She spoke no English but we managed to get to know each other a bit. She told me that she is very anxious to learn English because "you must know English to be able to travel" and asked if I could get together with her next week and see if we can help each other out with our respective languages. I agreed so we'll see what we can manage! After spending the afternoon with my American friend and indulging a bit in slang and euphemisms, none of which I can ever use with my French friends - I picked up the kids from school and we headed to the library (bibliotheque). We completely overwhelmed their 3 meager shelves of English books but we all managed to find something that we were interested in. All of the kids also picked up a few French books that they thought they could manage - perhaps with the help of their tutor. Everyone is now reading quite contentedly. I am blogging early tonight because we have big plans for the evening.... we plan to rent a video for the kids on our new pay-per-view television service (all American movies are available in English), order a pizza from Domino's around the corner and then Josh and I are going to walk to the theater by the port and watch the American version of "No Country for Old Men". Quite exciting!!!!

Angola, Indiana!!!

Today, was a busy day. I had everything to catch up on after spending the first half of the week home with Tabitha. Tabitha was feeling fine today except for a bit of a cough so she headed back to school. I was then free to run around. I first took the 10 minute walk to the post office to buy a supply of air mail stamps. Afterwards, I went to a new friend's house to have coffee with her and another woman. It turns out that this other woman had lived in the U.S. (in Baltimore) for one year when she was 20 years old. She spoke excellent English (as well as Japanese, German and of course, French) and was really excited to meet me. She was telling me how important it is for her that her children learn to speak English so they have had an American exchange student at their home in the past, and she has sent her two oldest daughters to a host family in the U.S. as well. When I asked her where her girls had lived in the U.S., she told me that they were in Angola, Indiana of all places!!! What are the chances of being so close to our own home town!!?? Anyway, we really had a great time discussing France and the U.S. and hope to get together again soon. After coffee, I hit the grocery store hard before hurrying home to meet the internet guy. He finally, finally got our wi-fi to work so we are now wirelessly connected to the internet and all of our computers are now usable. He also installed our fancy new television service which will allow us to have a few channels in English! Pretty exciting. Maybe now I can watch BBC and find out more about this U.S. presidential election! The French people are so interested in US politics that they all ask me about it all the time. The kids in 8th grade even have to do a school project about our election! Little do they know that I often know less than them because I cannot listen to the radio or television! I can only rely on what I read on the internet. Due to some phone line problems, the internet guy and I spent almost 90 minutes wading through our Franglish. Not an easy task but I was proud of both of us. After finally getting rid of that guy, I was able to enjoy about 30 minutes of another gorgeous day before heading out to pick up the kids from school.